WC, folkfreak,
Firstly, let me say that I am completely envious of folkfreak's dcs rig! I am not going to say he is incorrect about the transport vs. NAS/streaming option. I don't know how the best transport vs the best streamer shakes out. I went from transport to a dedicated iMac but was always disappointed by this sound so then added the Aurender (which crushed the iMac). I never had a desire to go back to individual discs (which I still keep).
What I will say is that the Conductor app for controlling Aurender is a distant second from a Roon based system. For this reason, I would steer clear of Aurender. I believe the Innuos Statement (which utilizes a Roon platform) would be a better choice for this reason, although I'm not sure how the reclocking features compare. I have compared N100 with Innuous Zenith SE and Aurender was crushed. I believe jonaiken--who regularly posts here--replaced an SE with an Innuous Statement into a Vivaldi stack so he may be able to shed good light on this. I heard through the grapevine that he found the statement crushed the SE...
My dealer who has both dcs and Aurender (I currently have a basic N100H) recommends the following: NAS (supplemented by streaming) into Roon Nucleus + to feed dcs. In the past couple years, their sales of Aurender have fallen to the floor in favor of NAS/Nucleus. At Axpona, most of the rooms were using Roon, and though many room identification summaries said they had Aurender, the only place I definitely remember an Aurender being utilized was... in the Aurender room!
My dealer likes the Innuous platform and have auditioned it extensively but they worry that it just doesn't fit with where industry is going. I am in the process of transferring my entire 2 TB collection into a new NAS, the Nucleus + is on order and my next planned step is for a dcs Bartok, as the Vivaldi is outside of my realistic budget.
In the "where should I invest the money first.." question: Aurender vs. dcs... to me I would absolutely go dcs and worry about how to "feed" it later! I am doing it "out of order" primarily because of backup concerns (Aurender is a complete pain in the ass to backup) and my preference for Roon over Conductor. Although if I notice a drop off in sound quality, I will keep the Aurender until I get the Bartok.
*******
Finally, thanks to clarification note to tjassoc who correctly pointed out that Wilson does not include biwiring in their speaker designs. I had commented on the importance of matching jumpers to speaker cable in biwired systems and incorrectly attributed a general conversation about this importance to include the Wilsons. Clearly from Wilson's design decisions, they don't like mismatched jumpers as well! lol
Firstly, let me say that I am completely envious of folkfreak's dcs rig! I am not going to say he is incorrect about the transport vs. NAS/streaming option. I don't know how the best transport vs the best streamer shakes out. I went from transport to a dedicated iMac but was always disappointed by this sound so then added the Aurender (which crushed the iMac). I never had a desire to go back to individual discs (which I still keep).
What I will say is that the Conductor app for controlling Aurender is a distant second from a Roon based system. For this reason, I would steer clear of Aurender. I believe the Innuos Statement (which utilizes a Roon platform) would be a better choice for this reason, although I'm not sure how the reclocking features compare. I have compared N100 with Innuous Zenith SE and Aurender was crushed. I believe jonaiken--who regularly posts here--replaced an SE with an Innuous Statement into a Vivaldi stack so he may be able to shed good light on this. I heard through the grapevine that he found the statement crushed the SE...
My dealer who has both dcs and Aurender (I currently have a basic N100H) recommends the following: NAS (supplemented by streaming) into Roon Nucleus + to feed dcs. In the past couple years, their sales of Aurender have fallen to the floor in favor of NAS/Nucleus. At Axpona, most of the rooms were using Roon, and though many room identification summaries said they had Aurender, the only place I definitely remember an Aurender being utilized was... in the Aurender room!
My dealer likes the Innuous platform and have auditioned it extensively but they worry that it just doesn't fit with where industry is going. I am in the process of transferring my entire 2 TB collection into a new NAS, the Nucleus + is on order and my next planned step is for a dcs Bartok, as the Vivaldi is outside of my realistic budget.
In the "where should I invest the money first.." question: Aurender vs. dcs... to me I would absolutely go dcs and worry about how to "feed" it later! I am doing it "out of order" primarily because of backup concerns (Aurender is a complete pain in the ass to backup) and my preference for Roon over Conductor. Although if I notice a drop off in sound quality, I will keep the Aurender until I get the Bartok.
*******
Finally, thanks to clarification note to tjassoc who correctly pointed out that Wilson does not include biwiring in their speaker designs. I had commented on the importance of matching jumpers to speaker cable in biwired systems and incorrectly attributed a general conversation about this importance to include the Wilsons. Clearly from Wilson's design decisions, they don't like mismatched jumpers as well! lol